Honestly, I heard a lot of hype for this book and was like eh. Then I read somewhere the V word and all things changed. I loved me a good vampire book. And this is a GOOD Vampire book. In the acknowledgements Black states that “This book is a love letter to all the vampire books I read over and over growing up.” How true.

I read the first 18 chapters the night before I had back surgery. I would have stayed up all night and read but I figured that I needed some sleep before surgery. As soon as the haze from all the drugs wore off, I was desperate to read more.

Black has an interesting take on Vampire lore but doesn’t do anything too crazy. She also does a great job of intertwining a post-apocalyptic future with a vampire tale in the middle. While the death toll is high in this book, it wasn’t so graphic that I had to put it down to take a break because I was overwhelmed by the death / fight scenes.

“Hi, I’m Tana Bach. I’m seventeen, and a few days ago there was party and – no, never mind” I won’t give anything away. Just read the book. If you think originality is gone from vampire books, prepared to be pleasantly surprised.